Synonyms of murky

murky

adjective

ˈmər-kē 

1

as in darkened

being without light or without much light

I didn't like walking around the murky campground without a flashlight

Synonyms & Similar Words

• darkened
• dark
• black
• obscured
• obscure
• dim
• gloomy
• somber
• dusky
• lightless
• darkish
• stygian
• darkling
• dusk
• unlit
• dimmed
• pitch-black
• tenebrous
• pitch-dark
• darksome
• pitchy
• caliginous
• rayless
• shadowy
• twilit
• misty
• shady
• crepuscular
• gray
• clouded
• cloudy
• moonless
• tenebrific
• starless
• lackluster
• foggy
• dulled
• pale
• dull
• smoggy
• leaden
• fuliginous
• soupy
• sunless
• befogged
• shadowlike
• beclouded

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• light
• bright
• brilliant
• luminous
• illuminated
• lucid
• shining
• sparkling
• lucent
• lit
• illumined
• brightened
• glaring
• resplendent
• radiant
• incandescent
• lightsome
• glowing
• effulgent
• beamy
• shiny
• lambent
• glossy
• lustrous
• alight
• beaming
• moonlit
• highlighted
• aglitter
• sunlit
• relucent
• agleam
• ultrabright
• moony
• spotlighted
• ablaze
• starlit
• floodlit

2

as in dark

causing or marked by an atmosphere lacking in cheer

the murky shadows of the cemetery

Synonyms & Similar Words

• dark
• bleak
• somber
• lonely
• depressive
• depressing
• desolate
• darkening
• solemn
• gray
• cold
• morbid
• blue
• lonesome
• black
• miserable
• gloomy
• cloudy
• dismal
• wretched
• dreary
• cheerless
• sullen
• depressed
• sad
• chill
• funereal
• lugubrious
• dire
• oppressive
• morose
• glum
• forlorn
• sepulchral
• saturnine
• elegiac
• disconsolate
• comfortless
• melancholy
• tenebrous
• drear
• godforsaken
• dreich
• unhappy
• desperate
• dim
• dull
• sunless
• plutonian
• grim
• Cimmerian
• hopeless
• negative
• mournful
• melancholic
• tenebrific
• woeful
• menacing
• woebegone
• low
• discouraging
• dismaying
• dejected
• distressful
• mirthless
• dispiriting
• upsetting
• distressing
• pessimistic
• despondent
• down
• disheartening
• droopy
• drab
• inconsolable
• discomfiting
• sorrowful
• lamentable
• colorless
• plaintive
• hangdog
• dour
• threatening
• lowering
• lowery

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• bright
• friendly
• cheerful
• cheery
• festive
• cordial
• gay
• comforting
• sunshiny
• joyous
• buoyant
• merry
• joyful
• jolly
• gay
• optimistic
• blithe
• mirthful
• hopeful
• encouraging
• heartwarming
• cheering
• blithesome
• jocund
• lighthearted
• lightsome

3

as in hazy

filled with or dimmed by fine particles (as of dust or water) in suspension

skies made murky from the smoke of forest fires that were many miles to the west

Synonyms & Similar Words

• hazy
• misty
• rainy
• clouded
• foggy
• thick
• cloudy
• muddy
• smoggy
• smoky
• milky
• soupy
• gauzy
• befogged
• turbid
• beclouded
• slimy
• overcast
• brumous
• mucky
• stormy
• slushy
• opaque
• dirty
• miasmic
• smudgy
• miasmatic
• sooty
• miasmal
• miry
• filmy

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• clear
• limpid
• cloudless
• bright
• clean
• unclouded
• pellucid
• sunny
• fair
• transparent
• translucent
• sunshiny
• clement

4

as in ambiguous

having an often intentionally veiled or uncertain meaning

a murky reply to a question about his intentions

Synonyms & Similar Words

• ambiguous
• cryptic
• dark
• obscure
• mysterious
• enigmatic
• unclear
• vague
• mystic
• opaque
• nebulous
• esoteric
• questionable
• inscrutable
• deep
• uncertain
• equivocal
• arcane
• occult
• confusing
• Delphic
• fuliginous
• hazy
• elliptical
• shadowy
• muddy
• obscurant
• complicated
• fuzzy
• indistinct
• eerie
• foggy
• weird
• misty
• clouded
• shrouded
• double-edged
• recondite
• abstruse
• cloudy
• uncanny
• difficult
• faint
• undefined
• dim
• cloaked
• complex
• shaded
• incomprehensible
• disguised
• inexplicable
• indirect
• undetermined
• perplexing
• indecipherable
• masked
• puzzling
• inexact
• indefinite
• indistinguishable
• concealed
• invisible
• baffling
• intangible
• impenetrable
• unknowable
• noncommittal
• obfuscatory
• bewildering
• unfathomable
• confounding
• mystifying
• unanswerable
• impalpable
• inexplicit
• befogged
• beclouded
• sphinxlike
• inappreciable
• shadowlike
• circuitous
• obtuse
• bedimmed
• roundabout
• obnubilated

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• clear
• obvious
• plain
• unambiguous
• accessible
• understandable
• distinct
• unequivocal
• certain
• bright
• evident
• comprehensible
• legible
• intelligible
• strong
• sure
• firm
• pellucid
• knowable
• defined
• direct
• nonambiguous
• straightforward
• fathomable
• explicit
• definite
• visible
• determined
• exact
• self-evident
• self-explanatory
• tangible
• appreciable
• palpable
• unmistakable
• blatant
• patent

5

as in vague

not seen or understood clearly

a gubernatorial candidate with a murky position on the hot-button issue of capital punishment

Synonyms & Similar Words

• vague
• hazy
• faint
• unclear
• shadowy
• dark
• pale
• indistinct
• nebulous
• fuzzy
• foggy
• opaque
• misty
• obscure
• blurry
• undefined
• dim
• undetermined
• indefinite
• indistinguishable
• bleary
• blear
• gauzy
• gloomy
• dusky
• mysterious
• invisible
• intangible
• puzzling
• incomprehensible
• inexplicable
• impalpable
• inappreciable
• indiscernible
• indecipherable
• obfuscatory
• hieroglyphic

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• clear
• definite
• obvious
• distinct
• bright
• evident
• plain
• certain
• pellucid
• strong
• sure
• firm

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of murky

The evidence was turned over to the FBI, Eagleson said, but what became of it later remains murky. — ABC News, 3 Sep. 2026

The film is told through multiple perspectives and a non-linear timeline that makes the couple’s relationship far murkier and nuanced. — Brian Welk, IndieWire, 31 Aug. 2026

The situation is also murky for those living outside their favorite team’s region. — Jacob Feldman, Sportico.com, 20 Aug. 2026

Physicists used Wilson’s calculations to justify the previously murky mechanics of quantum field theory, which treats each particle as a wave while washing out the less significant effects of the smallest vibrations. — Charlie Wood, Quanta Magazine, 17 Aug. 2026